


The Doctor That Tried to Cure Everything

by thelittlemerms



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Pink Lars, Spoilers for Episode: s05e01-04 Wanted, This fic takes place mostly in a hospital, and will probably involve medical descriptions of stuff, idk if Lars will show up or just be discussed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-05 16:16:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11581650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelittlemerms/pseuds/thelittlemerms
Summary: Steven goes to Connie's mother for advice about his healing powers.....Priyanka felt angry, not at Steven exactly, but that's who her anger was directed towards in that moment. The protective mother in her wanted to chastise him for putting himself in danger, lecture him on making reckless decisions, shout at him for hurting her daughter so much. But seeing him shaking there in front of her, she knew that none of that would be helpful. He looked just as broken and beaten as Connie did, if not more so. This boy must have been through hell and back, and for some reason he was coming to her for help. So as she had done many times before as both a mother and a doctor, Priyanka pushed her own emotions aside and focused on the two children in front of her that were depending on her.





	1. Steven's Request

There was a lot that happened in the wake of Steven's return home. Mostly hugging and crying. And a little bit of explaining. Or really, more than a bit. But after telling the Gems about the trial and the off colors and Lars, and then spending the morning wandering around Beach City (with currently clingy family and best friend in tow) and telling the Lars aspect of the story about five more times, not to mention crashing and falling asleep through the rest of the daylight hours because he definitely needed it, Steven still had a lot of things on his mind that he knew the gems could only partly help him with.

"Connie?" he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he ambled down the beach house stairs. Connie was sitting in the kitchen, reading a book. She hadn’t left the beach house the whole day. The Gems had spent the day whispering to each other and mysteriously darting in and out of rooms in the temple. This wasn’t necessarily abnormal, but it did feel a bit strange that Greg had joined in on this behavior. There seemed to be a silent agreement, though, that at least one of them was to be in the beach house at all times, as if they were worried Steven would disappear a second time if they let him out of their sight, even though the most concerning thing that had happened to him was succumbing to his interplanetary jet lag. At the time of Steven’s waking, the adult supervision in the house was Pearl, who was busying herself with meaningless menial tasks and chores that didn’t need to be done in the least.

“Steven, you’re awake!” she exclaimed, and rushed to make him the most convoluted breakfast that Connie had ever seen. It was like she had taken an entire farm and somehow fit it all onto Steven’s plate.

For the most part, Steven ate his overkill of a meal in silent complicity with a dash of brooding. When he was done, he pushed his plate aside and addressed his friend. “Connie, can we visit you mom next?”

"My mom? What do you want to talk to her about?" Connie asked. She turned to look at him, and something about the look in his eyes reminded her of the time that Steven had hid from her and tried to break off their friendship. She didn't think he wanted to do that now, but there was someone else who might.

"Steven..." she forced out, her heart breaking as much as her voice.

"Please," Steven begged. "I need to talk to her."

Connie bit her lip. "Okay. Of course. She's at the hospital."

"Just us this time." Steven said to Pearl, and after some obligatory protest, she agreed.

"Alright, just be careful," Pearl said, letting him out of her umpteenth hug.

"We will. And we'll be back soon," Steven assured her, as he and Connie mounted Lion to take them to the hospital. Connie was reminded of the last time he was there with her, when they had fought gem mutants together and the truth had finally come out to her mom. At the time, her mom had told her with gravity, "I need to know what's happening in your life," and that still stood. Even if Connie was terrified of what her mom would say now.

....

Dr. Maheswaran heard the door creak open behind her. "Dr. West, I thought that you -"

"I'm not Dr. West, Mom."

She turned around to see her daughter standing there with an expression that no thirteen year old should have to wear. "Connie? What are you doing here? Did something happen? I thought you were with the g-" Priyanka's stethoscope clattered on the tile floor when she realized her daughter wasn't alone, and saw the weary boy too short for his age looming hesitantly just beyond the door frame.

“You found him.”

"Hi Dr. Maheswaran," Steven mumbled as he stepped into the room.

Priyanka's initial impulse reaction was to scream. She didn't, but that's what she felt like doing. Just two nights before, she had held her baby in her arms late into the night, trying to get her to stop crying long enough for her to fall asleep. It hadn't been very effective.

_"What if he never comes back, mommy?"_ Connie had said between sobs. _"What if they kill him up there? What if we never find him?"_

_"I don't know, sweetie,"_ was all Priyanka could think to say. _"I just don't know."_

Connie's knuckles were turning white as she gripped tighter on the fabric of her mother's shirt, which had become soaked with tears as she nuzzled her face into her mother's shoulder. _"I just hate not knowing. So much. And I'm so scared that I'll never know."_

Now, Connie and Priyanka knew, Steven was here, and he was safe. But that didn't erase all the grief and pain his disappearance had caused. Priyanka felt angry, not at Steven exactly, but that's who her anger was directed towards in that moment. The protective mother in her wanted to chastise him for putting himself in danger, lecture him on making reckless decisions, shout at him for hurting her daughter so much. But seeing him shaking there in front of her, she knew that none of that would be helpful. He looked just as broken and beaten as Connie did, if not more so. This boy must have been through hell and back, and for some reason he was coming to her for help. So as she had done many times before as both a mother and a doctor, Priyanka pushed her own emotions aside and focused on the two children in front of her that were depending on her.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "First things first. Steven, are you hurt? Do you need medical attention?”

Steven shook his head by the tiniest amount. "No ma'am, I’m fine. The Gems looked me over already. I'm a little sleep deprived, and maybe malnourished and dehydrated, but no major injuries. At least, not for me."

This last sentence gave Dr. Maheswaran cause for concern. "Connie, are you..." she began.

Steven shook his head more emphatically this time, and started talking a mile a minute. "I'm not talking about Connie. Homeworld Gems were trying to abduct humans and it was all my fault and when I turned myself in everyone had gotten off the ship except this one boy named Lars and I almost sent him back to Earth but then I couldn't and then when we got to Homeworld we got separated but then we found each other and we escaped and there were these other Gems that helped us but there were these robonoids that were after us only they couldn't see Lars because he was human so Lars was fighting them but then he..."

And just as quickly as he had started talking, he trailed off completely. Priyanka watched as her daughter grasped his hand to comfort him, and it took every fiber of her being to keep herself from saying anything.

"Lars got killed." Connie ended up saying for Steven.

Involuntarily, Priyanka's hand moved to cover her mouth.

"But it's okay! He's okay!" Steven rushed to tell her. "I kind of...resurrected him?"

A swath of emotions hit Priyanka all at once but the most prominent ones she could name were, in order: shock, worry, and relief. She sat down on the nearest chair and rubbed her temples.

"How?" was all she ended up able to ask.

"That's a good question," Steven answered sheepishly. "I honestly don't really know. Like I know it was my tears that healed him, and Mom had healing tears too, I just didn't know they could heal anyone _that much_ and before my tears couldn't heal Amethyst, all the other times when I healed Connie and Lapis and Eyeball and Centi, it had been with my spit and not my tears."

Priyanka blanched slightly at this particular detail. She was aware that Connie's eyesight had been magically healed, she just hadn't known the specifics behind that.

Steven continued talking. "That's actually why I wanted to talk to you. I was hoping...maybe you might be able to help me understand my healing powers."

"I don't know, Steven. This gem stuff kind of stumps my medical expertise, to be honest. What about your guardians? Aren't they teaching you about your...abilities?" She mentally corrected herself from saying "powers" just at the last second. Just because she didn't know how Steven's healing worked, didn't mean it was magic. She was a scientist, after all.

“Sort of. The Gems have been telling me about Gem stuff, but they’re pretty clueless when it comes to human physiology.”

The doctor spared a small glance towards her daughter’s hand in Steven’s. In another situation, a comment like that would have made her think that Steven was worried about “the birds and the bees,” so to speak, but the prior conversational context told her that this was not the case, so she pushed the thought aside. They were too young to worry about that kind of thing, anyway. Right?

“Alright. What do you want to know?”

“Everything. Or as much as possible. How do my healing powers work when it comes to humans instead of Gems? Are there limitations? Certain things I can’t heal? And this resurrection thing, was that a onetime occurrence or is that just _a thing I can do?_ I just, want to be prepared.” He looked at Connie for a moment, then very decisively let go of her hand. Priyanka tried not to think too much about the implications of _that_ particular gesture. “And I’ve been thinking…if my healing powers are really that potent, there are probably some humans I can help out. And I figured…well, you do work in a hospital.”

Dr. Maheswaran sighed. He wasn’t wrong. Weird alien superhero origin stories aside, a compound or series of compounds or _something_ that could cure myopia and astigmatism, and apparently, kick start a stopped heart, could be the key to any number of medical breakthroughs, particularly if such compounds could be synthesized artificially instead of being reliant on Steven’s biology. Which, being a hybrid of species originating from entirely different ecosystems, had to be utterly fascinating. But there were ethical considerations at play, too. She couldn’t just _let_ people experiment on a 14 year old boy, medical anomaly or not. She didn’t think his guardians would be too happy about such a scenario, either. But he did ask, and if _Steven_ was the one who was doing the experimentation and dictating what was done, then maybe…

“We might have to come up with some unorthodox research techniques,” she told the boy finally, “but I think we can figure something out.”


	2. Steven's Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Priyanka and Steven try to figure out just what it is that gives Steven his healing abilities. When they get stumped, Steven brings Priyanka someone he thinks can help.

One of the first things that Dr. Maheswaran taught Steven was how to use a microscope, which unfortunately turned out to be much less helpful than she had hoped. Under Dr. Maheswaran's instruction Steven had collected various samples of Gem tears, water from Rose's spring, and his own tears and saliva, and they set to work comparing them to the composition of human samples. Dr. Maheswaran's initial hypothesis was that there was something about Steven's samples that was chemically different from the other Gem and human samples, but this wasn't exactly correct. The truth of the matter was far more bizarre.

By looking at the slides they had made through an optical microscope, they determined two things. First, Steven's tears and spit were completely indistinguishable from human tears and spit. Second, the Gems' tears and the sample from the spring couldn't be viewed by an optical microscope. At all.

Dr. Maheswaran let out a dejected sigh. "Serves me right for thinking this was going to be simple. I just don't understand this. We should be able to see something. Where do we even start if we can't even develop a baseline understanding of gem physiology?"

Steven shrugged. "Would it help if you met someone who was an expert in gemology?"

"Why yes, I think it probably would."

Steven jumped off the stool he had been sitting on. "Then good news, I know someone just like that. hang on, I'll bring her here."

...

When Steven returned to the makeshift lab that Priyanka had set up, he brought along with him a green gem that was the same size as him.

"Peridot this is Dr. Maheswaran. Dr. Maheswaran, Peridot." Steven said, gesturing between the two.

Dr. Maheswaran extended a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Peridot."

"Oh no," Peridot rebutted, grabbing the doctor's hand with all the awkwardness of someone who didn't have a lot of experience shaking hands, "the pleasure is all mine, doctor."

"Please, call me Priyanka."

Peridot's face contorted. "Why? It is my understanding that you have worked hard to earn that honorific."

Priyanka laughed. "This is true. But there is no need to use honorifics amongst friends."

"So then you wish us to be friends?" Peridot glanced at Steven, having reached the limits of her knowledge on pretend human-ing.

"Yes, of course." Priyanka assured her.

Having been sufficiently convinced, and the stress of the initial greeting behind them, Peridot settled into business-mode. "Steven tells me that you are attempting to determine the metaphysical behavior of his gem's healing powers, but have reached an impasse."

"Yes. It appears as if the particles in the Gem samples we are trying to study are too small to be viewed with my instrumentation."

Peridot examined the microscope and fiddled with the controls a bit, then promptly shook her head and tsked. "The particles aren't just too small, they're entirely incompatible with your technology! Viewing photonic structures requires a much more finessed command of light than you could get with mere mirrors and magnification."

"Photonic structures? You mean we're looking for biological substances made of light?" Priyanka asked in disbelief.

"Well yes, obviously. Steven, you didn't think to tell her that? That's kind of vital information."

"Oh." Steven said, with the approximate tone of someone just realizing that two plus two equaled four. "Yeah. The Gems are made of hard light. And I'm, I guess, half light?"

"How is that even possible?" Priyanka objected. "Photons don't have mass."

Peridot waved her off. "They do if you make them."

"Okay. I'll bite. how do you make photons have mass?"

"It's not like it's a conscious decision. it's just how Gems are. Our gems determine the shape for our light to take, and the photons produced by our gem or taken in from our environment move at the speed of light within that shape, though depending on the the circumstance we can manipulate the speed of light. Simply put, our bodies are always being emitted and absorbed both in the exact same instant."

"What does that even _mean_?" Steven asked in frustration.

"Long story short, no gem - no bending reality, no hard light."

"So you're telling me that Steven's ability to heal comes from particles of this 'hard light' from his gem?"

"Yes but, we're not just talking about hard light here, we're talking about _living_ light. Think of it as like Steven's gem producing the gem equivalent of white blood cells, only made of light instead of protons and neutrons, and much more advanced. The patterns of photons in Steven's tears and saliva are undoubtedly incredibly complex and are constantly evolving, adapting to the specific needs of the subject to be healed."

"So much for artificially replicating the medicinal benefits of his antibodies." Priyanka said.

"Oh, Stars no. You couldn't do that. Though maybe...we could attempt to at least partially recreate the effects of...No. That's absurd. It's never been tried before. Couldn't be done.”

Priyanka raised an eyebrow enticingly at the gem. “We won't know if we don't try."

“Yes. Right. Well I suppose we could...you don’t happen to have equipment that is capable of capturing images of photons, do you? I suppose not. That would make it too easy, wouldn’t it.”

“There actually are such things as photomultiplier tubes, but we certainly don’t have any here. I’m not even sure that Beach City University has any. Though Delmarva State might.”

“Hmm. Then I will look into this photomultiplier machine, and if it doesn’t suit our purposes I could perhaps make a type of photon viewer myself, though it would be even more difficult than making the drill was. In the meantime, I’m sure there are other types of analyses that we can perform.”

Priyanka nodded. “That sounds like a plan. Though I want to make it clear that I want to be able to vet any test involving Steven myself.”

“Yes doctor - er, Priyanka.”

“Steven, what do you think?” Priyanka asked.

At this, Steven pumped his fist into the air and shouted, “Science!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am neither a scientist nor is hard light actually even a thing, so this chapter was pretty much gibberish. But it was fun gibberish!  
> Also, nerd cred to anyone who can tell me what nerdy song I made Peridot quote in her dialogue (I high key have an image in my head of Peridot dancing around singing nerdy songs about science now).


	3. Connie's Worry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connie can't sleep. Neither can her mother.

Connie sat quietly at the edge of her bed, twiddling her thumbs. She didn't dare look at the clock beside her bed for fear of what time it was. She had tried to lay down, but every time she did so it resulted in fruitless tossing and turning as she failed to find a comfortable position. Any attempt to sleep was thwarted by her mounting nervousness. What was making her so anxious, she didn't know.

Steven was back. _So why was she still so scared?_

Connie didn't want to wake her mother; she was already working so hard to help Steven as it was. But her mother's words rang in her ears: _I need to be able to step in when you're in over your head_. And this - whatever this was - probably counted as Connie in over her head, as much as she wished it didn't. Wished it was over. Connie inhaled, making her decision, and gently slipped off her bed and let her bare feet touch the cold floor.

Tiptoeing into her parents room, Connie saw that her mom was not asleep, but was lying across the bed, reading. She felt somewhat relieved that her dad had a night shift that night, because she didn’t know if she could handle two doting parents at once.

"Connie? What are you doing awake?" Priyanka asked.

"I don't know. I couldn't sleep. Too many butterflies." Connie's lips curled slightly at her own double meaning.

"Come here, let's talk about it." Priyanka closed her book as she made room for Connie, who was caught entirely off guard when she caught a glimpse of the title.

"You're reading the Spirit Morph Saga?" Connie asked in bewilderment. "What happened to not liking things just because they're popular?"

"Oh, I don't know, I think I'm starting to get why you like it." Her mother said with a glimmer in her eye. "A smart and clever young girl stumbles into a world of magic, and trains with a strict but encouraging mentor to fight the forces of evil?"

Connie shrunk where she stood. It was a comparison she’d thought of herself many times, but coming from her mom it somehow seemed silly and childish. “I’m not Lisa.”

“Alright. Well, come here, not Lisa. Or are you just going to make me sit here by myself?”

Obligingly, Connie climbed onto the bed and tucked herself under her mother’s arm. Normally, this wasn’t a position that Connie found herself in often at night. But in the past several days, it seemed like she’d been doing exactly this more often than not.

“So what’s this about?” her mother prodded gently.

“I...don’t know.” Connie admitted. “I thought that once we found Steven I’d feel better. But I still feel really upset and scared.”

“Well, of course you do,” Priyanka said. “You just lived through a really traumatic experience. Hurt doesn’t go away just because a problem does. Not for really important things.”

“What does make hurt go away then?”

Priyanka brushed through her daughter’s hair with her fingers. “Time, mostly. And talking about it. And maybe chocolate. When you’re not trying to get to sleep, of course.”

Connie giggled. No matter what, her mom was still her mom. Then her expression hardened. “I just wish I knew why I’m so upset. It feels like my heart is screaming at me, but I don’t know what it’s saying.”

“Inaccurate metaphors aside,” Priyanka started, causing Connie to roll her eyes so hard they threatened to get stuck in her forehead, “sometimes feelings are just like that. Emotional turmoil is a messy thing.”

Connie closed her eyes. “I know.” She started humming a familiar tune to herself. _Here comes a thought, that might alarm me..._

“What’s that?” Priyanka asked.

“Oh, it’s just a melody Garnet taught me to help me calm myself. Or me and Steven, really.”

“It’s nice.”

“Yeah.” she sighed. “It’s not really working. It’s just reminding me of all the things I _can’t_ do.”

“Connie, are you scared that you’re not doing well enough in your training?”

Connie shook her head. “I don’t think that’s it. It’s something else. I mean, I’m always a little bit afraid for myself, but not like this.”

“Are you afraid for Steven?”

Connie’s lip quivered. “Yeah.” Her voice cracked so much it was barely a whisper, and the tears she had been holding back started to fall. “Steven’s been through so much and I...I try to help him, but I just don’t know what to do.”

“Honey, I wouldn’t expect you to. There are adults who wouldn’t know how to handle the situation you’re in. Just...be the hero I know you can be.”

“That’s just it! I’m not Lisa.” Connie repeated. “I’m...Archimicarus. I’m not a hero, Steven is. I’ll always just be the sidekick. And not even a very good one. I can’t even help Steven where it counts.”

“Stop right there, young lady. I will not tolerate my daughter calling herself the sidekick in her own story.”

“It’s just, I keep running over it in my mind, you know? All the events leading up to it...wondering if there was something I could have done differently to keep him from getting on that ship.”

“Alright. I know we’ve lightened up on the rules, and I respect your choices no matter what, but I want to make one thing explicitly clear. You are never, _ever_ , to leave this planet...without adult supervision. And not without telling me or your father first.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’d make that a rule for Steven, too, if I could.”

“I think Steven’s learned his lesson,” Connie mused, “At least, plenty enough people have complained to him about it.”

Priyanka patted her daughter gently on the leg. “It’s okay to worry about him, hon. That’s what friends do. Although...” She tilted her head mischievously to one side. “If we take the Lisa and Archimicarus metaphor to it’s obvious conclusion...don’t they get married at the end?”

Connie groaned into her hands. “Moooom. I don’t know which is worse, that that’s a thing that happened or that it’s a thing you’re suggesting _might_ happen.”

In reply, Priyanka kissed Connie’s cheek. “You’re definitely a Lisa. Don’t ever let yourself think otherwise.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She wasn’t sure exactly when, but somehow, Connie knew she’d end up falling asleep in her mother’s bed that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for the record, the song that Peridot quoted in the previous chapter is "The Universe Is Weird" by Hank Green.  
> During writing this chapter I discovered that there are multiple people who have written speculative takes on the Spirit Morph Saga, I haven't read any yet but you totally should if you want to because it takes a lot of effort and creativity to attempt something like that!  
> Also, why did I think it was a good idea to write two fanfics at once. Whelp. I'm committed now!

**Author's Note:**

> This fic isn't meant to take place in the same continuity as "Always Been An Off Color" though I guess there's nothing that says it couldn't. That's still the main fic I'm focusing on, so I guess sorry for writing this instead of that? I'm not sure how long this fic is going to be, as I don't have a plan for it in the same way as I do with my Lars fic. I just really liked the premise of Steven hanging out at a hospital to learn how to use his powers, so that's what this is going to be about.


End file.
